When constructing a two-dimensional array, specify how many rows and columns are needed: final int ROWS = 3; final int COLUMNS = 3; String[][] board = new String[ROWS][COLUMNS]; Access elements with an index pair: board[1][1] = "x"; board[2][1] = "o"; Two-Dimensional Arrays Big Java by Cay Horstmann Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. 1

It is common to use two nested loops when filling or searching: for (int i = 0; i < ROWS; i++) for (int j = 0; j < COLUMNS; j++) board[i][j] = " "; Traversing Two-Dimensional Arrays Big Java by Cay Horstmann Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. 2

You can also recover the array dimensions from the array variable: board.length is the number of rows board[0].length is the number of columns Rewrite the loop for filling the tic-tac-toe board: for (int i = 0; i < board.length; i++) for (int j = 0; j < board[0].length; j++) board[i][j] = " "; Traversing Two-Dimensional Arrays Big Java by Cay Horstmann Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. 3

Animation 7.3: Traversing a Nested Loop in a 2D Array 4

1 /** 2 A 3 x 3 tic-tac-toe board. 3 */ 4 public class TicTacToe 5 { 6 private String[][] board; 7 private static final int ROWS = 3; 8 private static final int COLUMNS = 3; 9 10 /** 11 Constructs an empty board. 12 */ 13 public TicTacToe() 14 { 15 board = new String[ROWS][COLUMNS]; 16 // Fill with spaces 17 for (int i = 0; i < ROWS; i++) 18 for (int j = 0; j < COLUMNS; j++) 19 board[i][j] = " "; 20 } 21 ch07/twodim/TicTacToe.java Continued Big Java by Cay Horstmann Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. 5

Big Java by Cay Horstmann Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. How do you declare and initialize a 4-by-4 array of integers? Answer: int[][] array = new int[4][4]; Self Check

Big Java by Cay Horstmann Copyright © 2009 by John Wiley & Sons. All rights reserved. How do you count the number of spaces in the tic-tac-toe board? Answer: int count = 0; for (int i = 0; i < ROWS; i++) for (int j = 0; j < COLUMNS; j++) if (board[i][j] == ' ') count++; Self Check